Special unit for penalty point abuse must be set up

A dedicated unit must be set up to deal with the abuse of the penalty points system and the continued failure to serve summonses on motorists who evade penalty points and fines.

The latest investigation also details how the system continued to be abused by some gardaí long after last June when Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan announced new safeguards to overhaul the system.

The report, which runs to three volumes, is expected to be published in the coming days after the Garda Commissioner forwarded the report to the Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, on Monday.

Commissioner O’Sullivan ordered an investigation by the force’s Professional Standards Unit last September after she was furnished with a new set of allegations from Sergeant Maurice McCabe, the garda who highlighted the initial abuse in 2012.

The Irish Examiner understands that Mr McCabe’s allegations were once again shown to be completely accurate, including his instancing of a litany of abuse even after the new system was put in place in June.

In contrast to the previous internal investigation into the abuse, for which Mr McCabe was not even interviewed, he was temporarily seconded to the PSU to assist in this investigation.

Among the recommendations from the report is the creation of a dedicated unit in the traffic headquarters in Thurles to deal with all motorists who evade the fines and application of penalty points, as well as the failure to serve summonses.

The report is understood to state that millions of euro of revenue continue to be lost under the current system, through the continuation of some gardaí to abuse the system, but particularly through the failure to follow up instances where fines are not paid, or penalty points applied.

The investigation uncovered that the cancelling of penalty points for nefarious reasons had occurred in recent years by using reasons that at first would not arouse suspicion. Previously, it had been uncovered that reasons for cancelling were often highly suspicious, but the practice has largely been discontinued since the scandal entered the public domain.

In recent years, the report reveals, there has been a major increase in the use of “emergency vehicle” as an alleged reason for cancelling, and an increase in the number of cases marked “undelivered An Post”.

The investigation discovered that the emergency vehicles cited were often the private cars used by off-duty gardaí. A number of cases were also discovered in which “undelivered An Post” was used by motorists who previously had had points cancelled for what were often incredible excuses.

The report was compiled and delivered to Commissioner O’Sullivan in early December, and included a redacted version which could be put into the public. The Irish Examiner contacted the Garda press office on Monday morning inquiring about the delay in publication, and was told by a spokesman late on Monday that the report had gone to the Minister for Justice earlier that day.

When the investigation was announced in September, Ms Fitzgerald pledged the final report would be published.